450 THE HORSE. 
very considerable, at others so slight as to be easily passed over. Usually 
the pulse is accelerated to about forty or fifty, the appetite is impaired, 
and there is often sore throat, with more or less cough. On examining 
the interior of the nostrils, they are more red than natural; at first dry 
and swollen, then bedewed with a watery discharge which soon becomes 
yellow, thick, and, in bad cases, purulent. The eyes are generally in- 
volved, their conjunctival coat being injected with blood, and often some 
slight weeping takes place, but there is always an expression of sleepi- 
ness or dulness, partly owing to the local condition of the organ, and 
partly to the general impairment of the health. The disease is caused 
in most instances by a chill, either in the stable or out, but sometimes, 
even in the mildest form, it appears to be epidemic. The treatment will 
greatly depend upon the severity of the seizure; usually, a bran-mash 
containing from six drachms to one ounce of powdered nitre in it, at night, 
for two or three consecutive periods, will suffice, together with the abstrac- 
tion of corn, and, if the bowels are confined, a mild dose of physic should 
be given. In more severe cases, when there is cough and considerable 
feverishness, a ball composed of the following ingredients may be given 
every night :— 
Take of Nitrate of Potass . .. . canon rachis. 
Qartarised; Antimony = %) . 9. 2 1 ie |) dudrachme: 
Powdered Dipitalis, 3 5.) 9 ee drachms 
Camphor .. . : . 13 drachm. 
Linseed meal and boiling water enough to make into a ball. 
If the throat is sore, an embrocation of equal parts of oil, turpentine, 
tincture of cantharides, and hartshorn, may be rubbed in night and 
morning. 
Should the disease extend to the bronchial tubes, or substance of the 
lungs, the treatment for bronchitis or pneunronia must be adopted. 
The stable should be kept cool, taking care to make up for the 
difference in temperature by putting on an extra rug; water should be 
allowed ad libitum, and no corn should be given. 
Sometimes the discharge becomes chronic, and it is then known by the 
name ozena. 
INFLUENZA, OR DISTEMPER. 
THIS MAY BE CONSIDERED TO BE an epidemic catarrh, but the symptoms 
are generally more severe and leave greater prostration of strength behind 
them. ‘They also require more careful treatment, which must be specially 
adapted to the attack, for remedies which will arrest the disease in one 
year will totally fail the next time that the epidemic prevails. The fever 
of late years has had a tendency to put on the typhoid type, and bleeding, 
which formerly was often beneficial, is now completely forbidden. The 
symptoms are at first similar to those already described as pertaining te 
common catarrh, but after a few days the accompanying fever is more 
severe than usual, and does not abate at the customary period. The appetite 
is altogether lost, and the appearance of the patient is characteristic of 
severe disease rather than of a trifling cold. It is, however, chiefly from 
the fact that a number of horses are seized with similar symptoms, either 
at the same time or rapidly following one another, that the disease is 
recognised. It usually prevails in the spring of the year, or in a wet and 
unhealthy autumn. Sometimes almost every case runs on to pneumonia, 
at others the bronchial mucous membrane alone is attacked ; but in all 
there is extreme debility in proportion to the apparent nature of the 
